Apparatus for disintegrating fibrous materials



Nov. 10, 1942. TALBOT 2,301,830

APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATING FIBROUS MATERIALS Filed July 18, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet l 9/ f 4 l I J JOHN JAHES ALBLRT TALBOT AT'PORE-EYS Nov. 10, 1942. J TALBOT 2,301,830

APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATING FIBROUS MATERIALS Filegi July 18, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 1| a A W a g JOHN JAMES ALBERT TALBOT BY 71W; 0%

ATTORNEYS Nov; 10, 1942. J. J. A. TALBOT 2,301,830

APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGR ATI [NG FIBROUS MATERIALS Filed July 18, 1940' 3 Sheets-She et 3 INVENTOR JOHN .mnEs ALBERT TALBOT By 6M ATTORDEXS I interstice formed between a pair of relatively roby which the disintegrated material is extracted Patented Nov. 10, 1942 UNITED STATES APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATING FIBROUS MATERIALS John James Albert Talbot, Illord, England Application July 18, 1940, Serial No. 346,241 In Great Britain August 5, 1938 3 Claims. This invention relates to apparatus for disintegrating fibrous material to a. finely comminuted condition, the object of the invention being to produce the maximum of staple from a miscellany of raw material, that is to say the greatest length of staple from roughly disintegrated material coupled with the maximum of useful staple per given weight of raw material. The raw materials extend 'over a wide range and include all paper materials (preferably excluding loaded papers), strawboard, k-raft, cotton mill waste, stufl cuttings, rag, noils, felt and feltings, wood pulpings, and kindred fibrous material.

The invention consists in the combination of a preliminary disintegrating device in which the raw material is disintegrated sulllciently to permit of air conveyance, a further disintegrating device or shredder in which the material delivered from the preliminary disintegrating device by an air conveyance device is blown through an 20 tatable plates having ribbed surfaces by which the material is disintegrated as it passes between the plates, and a further air conveyance device from the interstice between the aforesaid plates and delivered to a separator.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which is shown a preferred form of the invention and wherein:

Fig. 1 shows in diagrammatic elevation the method of carrying the invention into effect.

Fig. 2 is a part sectional elevation of the shredding machine.

Fig. 3 shows detail of the shredding plates.

Fig. 4 shows section of shredder teeth.

Referring to the drawings and to Fig. 1, the raw material is fed to the preliminary disintegrator I, which may be of any satisfactory and known type. The distintegrated raw material is pneumatically withdrawn from the mill I by. the fan 2 through conduit 3, and conveyed by the trunk 4 to the shredder 5. In the trunk 4 is inserted an air pressure balancing device comprising a chamber 8 having a throat I and perforate or air permeable cover 8, said cover being removable and replaceable. An air valve 8 may be introduced in the air trunk 4 whose partial closure compels a drop in pressure and volume and a resultant over-balancing air suction to take place the fan I on the shredding machine 5, and strip any adherent fibre from the gauze or fabric II constituting the material of the cover 8. The material conveyed from the mill I, 5

is passed tothe shredder 5 (see Fig. 2) wherein there is provided an enlargement I2 of the trunk 4 tending thereby to retard the velocity of flow and drop the conveyed material upon the disc I8 from which point the material enters the space between the stator plate I4 and rotor plate I5. The said plates I4 and I5 are alike entities superimposed the one above the other in horizontal or other plane and are supported respectively as to the stator by a cover housing I8, and as to the rotor by the disc I3. These operative plates are enclosed in an air-tight enclosure comprising a mobile stator cover I6 and fixed rotor housing I8, the cover l6 being adjustable to the housing I8 by any convenient means, e. g. as by adjustment of the nuts on studs 2| screwed into the substance of the rotor housing I8. A shroud 22 closes the gap between the adjustable parts and the said shroud may be faced or packed with lubricated felt to ensure relative air tightness against the suction of the fan III. The rotor plate I5 is fast to the disc I3 which in turn is fast with the shaft 23, the latter being mounted in journal 24 and footstep bearing 25. The shaft 23 is provided with rotary driving means such as indicated and comprising a worm .wheel 26 fast with the shaft 23, said worm wheel being driven by worm 21, to which latter rotary motion is imparted by any convenient external prime mover.

The footstep bearing is mounted in base pedestal 28,'the latter carrying thedrive housing 29 and shredder plate housing I6 and I8.

The lower part of the shredder plate housing I8, is provided with an outlet 30 trunked as at 3| to the fan III. The fan I0 extracts the'shredded material from the housing I1 and delivers it through the trunking 32 to the separator 33 which latter operates in a known manner, allowing the treated material to be separated in canvas bags 34 and therefrom be available as a manufactured material. The plates I4 and I5 constituting the shredding device are formed as vaned or ribbed discs, see Fig. 3, the said vanes 35 being preferably formed as by' moulding, milling or otherwise as inverted Vs, see Fig. 4, in a, fashion to allow their outward divergence to increase and their inward or intake incidence to be such that gathering space is ample for the material fed to their intake. Thus the vanes 35a are of varying lengths and disposed tangentially to their inward root circle 36. Located between each group of vanes 35a are sets of vanes 35 of varying lengths, which extend radially outwardly from the root tangent point A of vanes 35a, but terminate at greater distances from the tangent root circle 36. It will therefore be understood that a number of tangent points A are spaced around the root circle 36, and that a number of the shorter vanes 35 radiate from each of said tangent points. This arrangement gives a convenient non-choking outward flow of material and assists the pneumatic feeding and discharge.

The operation of the invention is as follows: The raw material is fed to the disintegrator mill I, from there-air borne in the conduit 4 to the balancer 6, and onward to the shredder 5.- If for any reason the volume and/or pressure of the pneumatic feed fiow is greater than that appertaining to the fan It], then an airrelease takes place through the permeable cover 8. The air stream carries the disintegrated fibrous material to the disc I3 of the shredder 5, and the lip I3a assists under pneumatic flow and centrifugal force the partly comminuted raw material to enter between'the stator and rotor plates [4 and I5. In passage between the plates the clearances are set according to the fibre dimensions of the raw material and may vary by way of example from /1 of one inch to /10 or more or less.

The material in passing the shredding plates is caused-to be further disintegrated and thereby to individualise the fibres of the fed material, so that the finished mass leaving the plates is flocculent, highly fibrous and also homogeneous. This material is extracted by the fan Ill and thereafter separated as a final product as explained above.

The finished material has a large field of utility in various arts. Thus it may be employed as an incorporating material in plastic moulding-compounds, building plasters, ceiling and wall boards, for felting, or as a packing material. According to the raw material used the final product may be graded by any known means and the residual grade of some qualities combed and converted into shoddy ware or felting slivers, the rejected grade being used for paper making or the viscose trades.

In order to assist flow of material between the plates on entry, t e lips of the stator and rotor are shaped as shown at l3a, whilst the exit edges are likewise inwardly cut to assist either suction or pressure delivery.

I claim:

1. In combination, a disintegrating mill, a

shredder mill, a conduit interconnecting the same, means in the disintegrating mill for disintegrating fibrous material into finely divided form and means for conveying the disintegrated material in suspension through the conduit, a relatively large expansion chamber in the conduit, an air filter in the upper portion thereof, a control valve in the conduit between the disintegrating mill and expansion chamber, the shredder mill consisting of a disk stator and a rotary disk cooperating therewith, both of said disks being ribbed, suction means at the discharge of the shredder mill for conveying shredded material therefrom, a separator, and means for conveying the material from the suction means to the separator.

2. In combination, a disintegrating mill, a shredder mill, a conduit interconnecting the same, means in the disintegrating mill for disintegrating fibrous material into finely divided form and means for conveying the disintegrated .material in suspension through the conduit, a

relatively large expansion chamber in the conduit, an air filter in the upper portion thereof,

a control valve in the conduit between the disintegrating mill and expansion chamber, the shredder mill consisting of a disk stator and a disk cooperating therewith rotatable on a vertical axis, both of said disks being ribbed, a housing about the disks providing a chamber beneath them to receive shredded material, suction means leading from said chamber for conveying shredded material from the latter, a separator, and means for conveying the material from the suction means to the separator.

3. In combination, a disintegrating mill, a shredder mill, a .conduit interconnecting the same, means in the disintegrating mill for disintegrating fibrous material into finely divided form and means for conveying the disintegrated ma terial in suspension through the conduit, a relatively large expansion chamber in the conduit, an air filter in the upper portion thereof, a control valve in the conduit between the disintegrating mill and expansion chamber, the shredder mill consisting of a horizontal disk stator having a central opening therethrough, a horizontal rotary disk beneath the stator and cooperating therewith and arranged to receive material through said opening, said conduit at the discharge end being enlarged and communicating directly with said opening, both of said disks being ribbed, suction means at the discharge of the shredder mill for conveying shredded material therefrom, a separator, and means for conveying the material from the suction means to the separator.

' JOHN JAMES ALBERT TALBOT. 

